The invention generally relates to robotic systems, and relates in particular to robotic systems that include articulated arms with end effectors for securing objects to the articulated arms in such a manner that they can be easily released by the end effector.
There are numerous end effectors (or grippers) commonly employed for industrial automation and other applications, including vacuum grippers, parallel jaw grippers, angular jaw grippers, and many others.
Vacuum grippers typically employ vacuum sources to evacuate a vacuum cup which is pressed onto a hard smooth surface to obtain a good seal. Gripping soft surfaces such as bagged products is more challenging, but in some instances a bag gripper may obtain a good seal with a plastic bag in order to lift it.
Parallel jaw and angular jaw grippers are sometimes used in industrial processes. Besides lifting and moving parts, they may be used to move a part to a precise location for high-tolerance mechanical assembly operations.
Magnetic grippers are also commonly employed, when a ferrous material is involved. In addition, there are many special purpose grippers suited to particular applications, such as internal chuck collets to grasp gears and wheels, or arrays of needles to grasp sheets of cloth.
A class of soft grippers has also been developed in research labs, and one example is the “Jamming Gripper” developed by a consortium that includes iRobot, Cornell University, and Empire Robotics. The Jamming Gripper includes a granular material enclosed in a soft bag, that conforms to an object shape and then stiffens when the air is evacuated from the bag.
A similar product is the Festo FlexShapeGripper sold by Festo Corporation that employs eversion of a flexible membrane to grasp an object. Such a system however, may not be suitable for certain applications, such as grasping a wide variety of packaging materials.
There remains a need, therefore, for an end effector that more is versatile enough to be used on a wide variety of objects.